Sarfraz Ahmed needs to understand his own strengths

Hassan Cheema 09:50 04/06/2017
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  • Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed.

    There is a phase that Pakistani fans fall into prior to any ICC tournament where all rational thought and evidence is put aside. Instead, pure fandom takes over, and rightly so, when you can jot out a path for the future that leads to the desired outcome. There’s a reason for that, obviously – call it the spirit of ’92.

    The extraordinary nature of the 1992 World Cup run – a mostly young team, that caught fire at the right moment after having won only one of its first five matches – means that no notion is too extreme, too outlandish to be considered unrealistic.

    Thus, even as Pakistan solidify their position near the bottom of the ODI rankings there is still a part of every Pakistani fan that believes that a great tournament run is just around the corner.

    The problem with that notion, of course, is that the Pakistan that came before was a far different beast to what Pakistan are now. Words like unpredictable and mercurial became so widely associated with the national team that they were being used years after they were relevant, to the point that they are now considered complimentary by a part of the fanbase that believes that such words show that the game or the team hasn’t really changed that much.

    All they need is some passion, some aggression, some leadership, some intangibles that can never be quantified. These are words that can be used as an excuse in the likely scenario of Pakistan’s failure. And if Pakistan do somehow manage to pull off a run, these are the words that will be evoked.

    Words like gameplan or tactics are unnecessary, because sports, like war, is about the size of your heart, not the size of your weapon.

    All Pakistan need in the Champions Trophy, for instance, is to beat Sri Lanka (not that unlikely) and overcome one of South Africa (hoping they choke a chase) or India (because passion!), and they’re through to the knockouts. And then, it’s anybody’s game!

    Never mind that Pakistan’s bowling attack right now is near the bottom of the pile, and is arguably the worst it has been since ODI cricket began, Pakistan’s batting improvements surely will cover for that?

    Alas, Pakistan’s batting numbers, or their improvement, isn’t enough to cover for the bowling, or to compete with the best in the world. Four of the eight teams in the Champions Trophy have a run rate in excess of 5.85 against each other since the 2015 World Cup. For Pakistan, that number is just 5.39.

    Pakistan have in fact been bowled out more than twice as often (13 times in 24 matches) as they’ve actually won a game (just six) against these teams. In an era when ODI cricket is pretty much two teams trying to out-bat each other, Pakistan are unlikely to win many matches or plaudits.

    Shoaib Malik's performances against top teams since WC 2015 has been below par [Getty Images]

    Shoaib Malik’s performances against top teams since 2015 have been below par.

    Break down the individual numbers and an even more bleak picture presents itself: since the 2015 World Cup, each of Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sharjeel Khan, Imad Wasim and Haris Sohail average over 40 with a strike-rate of over 90.

    Against the best five teams though (the four 2015 World Cup semi-finalists and England) only Imad Wasim and Sarfraz Ahmed make the cut. Shoaib Malik perhaps best exemplifies this distinction, his numbers against these teams are an average in the mid-30s and a strike-rate under 90, compared to 82 at 111 against other opposition. And in Imad’s case, those numbers are propped up by him not being dismissed four times in eight innings: his average score per innings is just 27.

    Thus, it would be fair to say that Sarfraz ought to be Pakistan’s main hope, with Babar Azam and Malik playing the supporting roles. And that is where Pakistan illustrate their greatest failure.

    They are now a small team, but they still don’t think like that. Even now, their aim is not to maximise the output of their best players. For all his numbers, and his performances batting in the top four, Sarfraz has somehow become a lower middle order batsman: a fact ignored by those that ought to remember the farcical discussions around his selections during the 2015 World Cup.

    In eight of his twelve innings following that tournament, he batted in the top four; he’s batted at 5, 6 or 7 in the 15 innings since. Considering that Sarfraz has never been a great hitter in the death overs (he has just one six in ODI cricket since the 2015 World Cup), and the fact that over his career he averages more than 5 runs an over in overs 11-40, you’d think Pakistan would aim to maximise his batting in those middle overs.

    Pakistan could allow everyone around him and Babar full freedom to go berserk, and attempt to be a poor man’s New Zealand. Instead, Pakistan and Sarfraz reject what is logical. The fact that he’s batted at number 5 or lower in all his matches as captain in ODIs and T20s points to his own thinking.

    That perhaps best exemplifies Pakistan’s limited overs cricket right now. When the captain, who happens to be probably the best batsman, does not realise what his own strengths are, then what hope should the fanbase really have?

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